Electrical Problems, short circuit or worse?

[Donna942]

A friend offered his driveway to park my 2002 Aerbus for a month while I stay at my son's house in Seattle.

He had had a 30 amp outlet installed for his own rig on the outside of his garage. Since mine is 30 amp we plugged it in. I was inside the rig and when he plugged it in and the microwave went crazy, the panel on it lit up, made a sparking noise, and went out.

I checked and turned off and back on the GFI and all the circuit breakers, then turned on the generator which started fine, but still no electric power.

Any ideas of what I can check/do when I go out there sometime this week.

[krivanj]

I'm really thinking he had a 30 amp 220v outlet installed. Your motorhome does not run on 220v! A lot of people think a dryer outlet is the same as an RV outlet. They are both called 30 amp outlet.
You need an RV 30 amp outlet which is 110v plus a common and a ground.

IF I am correct, lots of stuff in the motorhome is fried.
( I do hope I am wrong, but suspect I am correct... :-(

Sorry....

[Tugboat]

Get a circuit tester. Start at the plug with adapter and work in.
I always plug one in before I even plug in my surge protector that will check the system before it opens the circuit if it finds something it will not send power to my unit

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by Tugboat

Get a circuit tester. Start at the plug with adapter and work in.
I always plug one in before I even plug in my surge protector that will check the system before it opens the circuit if it finds something it will not send power to my unitAttachment 206721

What's he going to do with that tester. It won't fit in a 30 amp plug.

[twinboat]

You will need a volt meter with probes to see what voltage you connected to.

Take a close look at his outlet and see if it says 120 volts or 240 volts. If it says 240 volts, your plug should not have fit.

If its an incorrectly wired 120 volt 30 amp outlet, it will burn out everything that was on in your RV.

Converter/charger or inverter/ charger, microwave, fridge if it switched to AC, and what ever else was on.

Did your friend use an adaptor to plug in ?

[Donna942]

Originally Posted by twinboat

You will need a volt meter with probes to see what voltage you connected to.

Take a close look at his outlet and see if it says 120 volts or 240 volts. If it says 240 volts, your plug should not have fit.

If its an incorrectly wired 120 volt 30 amp outlet, it will burn out everything that was on in your RV.

Converter/charger or inverter/ charger, microwave, fridge if it switched to AC, and what ever else was on.

Did your friend use an adaptor to plug in ?

He did not use an adapter. It was supposed to be a 30 amp, and had the 30 amp type opening.

[Donna942]

Originally Posted by krivanj

I'm really thinking he had a 30 amp 220v outlet installed. Your motorhome does not run on 220v! A lot of people think a dryer outlet is the same as an RV outlet. They are both called 30 amp outlet.
You need an RV 30 amp outlet which is 110v plus a common and a ground.

IF I am correct, lots of stuff in the motorhome is fried.
( I do hope I am wrong, but suspect I am correct... :-(

Sorry....

This is what I am afraid of. I will let the home owner know. My thought was the electrician might have wired it for 50 volt but put a 30 outlet on it. Hmm, I wonder if my insurance will cover some of it if it's a big repair.

[Donna942]

Originally Posted by twinboat

What's he going to do with that tester. It won't fit in a 30 amp plug.

I'm thinking it could be used with an adapter plug?

[Tugboat]

I had said start at the plug with a adapter.
It is a quick check

[Soppy]

Chances are pretty good that it was wired for 240 volts. You have to get a meter and check the voltage. If it was 240 , many of the electrical item will have " fried ".

Have seen many electricians make the error of wiring the RV receptacles to 240 volt.

[TonyMac]

if you're like me, now's the time to buy a surge suppressor to check and approve the pedestal power before it smokes your rig. Like me, hopefully it only smoked your transfer switch. Your friend had this receptacle installed for his RV, so I'm assuming he used it in an RV application, so at one time, the receptacle worked for an RV.


Question: What was the power status of your rig when you plugged in the shore power? Was everything 120vac off, especially the air conditioners, 120vac usage at its minimum? I even turn off the fridge., and certainly the 120vac water heater.

[Tugboat]

This is the one I use.

https://www.amazon.com/Surge-Guard-3...BxL&ref=plSrch

[Hangfive]

Unplug from the outlet and check your 110V circuit breakers